Update and a quick "My Thoughts on..." Lez-ponies · 2:55pm Aug 6th, 2012
Not dead -- I AM NOT DEAD!
-sigh- Now, down to business.
I'll be honest with you all (because AJ would): I haven't done much writing in the past month or so. I've been working on getting a new job and moving soon, so that's taken a little precedence over my writing -- also, I recently spent two whole days volunteering at my local library (and will be spending another two later this week) because I'm finished high school but still don't have all my community service hours (what can I say, I'm a slacker and I think the system has flawed).
The less important reason why I haven't been writing (for those who care) are:
-reading (I think reading is important, but I'd be achieving more by writing)
-deck building (and not the wooden type -- Magic: The Gathering... yeah, I play too much and spent the ENTIRE weekend, including while I was at work, constructing the mock of a new deck online and play testing the hell out of it)
-laziness (I have video games, the internet, other pony things... it's hard to not just have fun, even though I should be working)
-lack of motivation
About that last one: It's not that I'm completely unmotivated to write, but that I haven't had a lot of motivation for Scratches recently, but have actually written a little bit of two other stories I hope to continue with -- one's going to be a non-super-short one-shot (ie. more than 4k words), and the other is another chapter based one (I'm not sure how long it will be or what the themes/genres are really -- I'm just going to write it and let it flow on it's own).
Don't worry though! I'm still going to be writing Scratches, I'm just in the process of trying to plan out my schedule in the near future, and set aside time where I HAVE TO write.
I'm thinking I'm going to start posting the story again as I write it, and not make you all wait until I rewrite up until where the story currently is (which, if I do a better job of this, will likely be more than five chapters in).
Now for a little thing I hope to be doing more of (if opportunities arise for me to)...
"My Thoughts On..." Lez-Ponies
I was catching up on all of those EQD posts that I missed during an entire weekend of Magic deck building and testing, when I stumbled upon a comment on one of the posts that said our fandom has "exhausted the novelty of lesbianism". At first I took a moment to chuckle at it, thinking of all the jokes about how much same-sex shipping we have (even if it is completely reasonable with our cast selection), but then I stopped and realized something: Some people actually just think lesbianism in writing is a novelty, and that it's essentially a gimmick to suck in more readers or attention.
In my opinion, shipping has never been about what gender the characters are: they're in a relationship, and what matters is how their personalities, daily routines, and habits interact with one another. I do not choose to make same-sex relationships a real topic of discussion in my work for two reason: 1) I have never had a problem with it in my real life, and 2) other people have written plenty upon it already, and the ones that will continue to will likely do a better job than me.
Simply put: I believe that same-sex relationships in writing should not be a novelty, and should only be made a focal point if you can write about it intelligently and do a good job of it.
90% of the cast we have to work with are females, so just put your characters together, worry about their personalities, not their genders, and have fun writing it! 
I totally agree with you on the shipping (seriously how many main male characters are there?). In stories the most important thing in my opinion is the dynamic between characters and then the dynamic between the setting and the characters. The emotional bonds (or lack of) and how they relate to their environment are the essence of any writing to me.
So I don't believe that any well written relationship can be a 'novelty'. I only love Scratchtavia fics because all the writers can write such great dynamics between Vinyl and Octavia (many put additional quirks or traits and thus we get many awesome but different interpretations). They're the classic odd couple who really deserve their own sitcom just for their hilarious interactions. It's not them being 'lesbians' that is the main draw (for me), that just serves to show how close their characters are to each other and provide a base for more hilarious hijinks between them living together. (Allegrezza was successful because it was all about how the two related to each other and then how others related to them. It was an in depth character study of the two at the end of the day. Many people who didn't like shipping like me (I HATED shipping before I reading it on a complete whim) got into shipping because of how it showed that there was more to it then 'lol look lesbianism!'.That emotional bonds between people (or ponies) can be something wonderful and how important it is to have someone special who likes all the crazy parts of you.)
I'm rambling but I tend to do that a lot
Also don't worry, take as much time as you need to continue Scratches, I just picked back up one of my stories after months of frustration and I suddenly have a million plans for it so sometimes you really just need a break from things to come back with a fresh take.
Hmm... Two months now... Anyway, just checking back on this to see if there was anything good yet, but apparently not. Hope to see more soon!
374668 Two months and I'm well aware! I've been getting full time work, getting new equipment for personal work, and doing all sorts of stuff for moving into my new apartment tomorrow. I may or may not have some time tomorrow, but at the very latest I hope to get the rough typed out in the coming week.
374809 sorry for the pressure
anyway, if you ever need some ideas, hit me up, I've got thousands.